The bodies of three farmworkers have been recovered during a mass rescue operation on a farm between Worcester and Rawsonville.  

The National Sea Rescue Institute (NSRI) said teams were called out to the farm near the old N1 roadway yesterday morning, where they found 23 people on the roofs of farm buildings. 

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 It is believed they had been trapped there since Monday, due to flooding.  

“At 10h53, Tuesday, 12 May, NSRI Kleinmond crew were activated following a request for assistance from WC Government Health EMS Metro Rescue and WC DRM (Disaster Risk Management), in cooperation with Overberg DRM,” read the NSRI statement. 

The large-scale rescue included multiple NSRI crews, as well as Provincial Traffic Services and an EMS Metro Rescue squad. 

The NSRI’s Craig Lambinon said trapped victims included “babies, toddlers, children, adults, the elderly, as well as one blind man and one paraplegic man”, adding that there were also animals in distress. They were evacuated using ladders and in relays with the NSRI’s floating rescue craft.  

“Our rescue crew worked tirelessly despite challenging conditions, often wading and swimming through barely accessible terrain and flooded areas. Once out of harm’s way, safely on terra firma, they were taken into the care of the farmer,” said Lambinon.  

Lambinon advised that during the operation, the bodies of two men and a woman were found in flooded buildings on the farm.  

Their bodies have since been recovered and handed to the police for further investigation. 

“The bodies of the deceased have been taken into the care of Police and Government Health Forensic Pathology Services. Condolences are conveyed to the families of the deceased.” 

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Lambinon also noted that teams were not able to recover some farm and domestic animals, as well as wildlife, due to the dangerous conditions.  

“NSRI Kleinmond returned to base at 23h00. NSRI Agulhas and NSRI Hermanus are mobilising to assist police and the emergency services deployed in operations on Wednesday.” 

In another emergency response mission, a family of seven was rescued after being found in distress in the Three Rivers area in Worcester. The family, including the parents, four children and a seven-day-old baby, were confirmed safe and reunited. 

South Africa’s official unemployment rate has increased yet again, to 32.7% in the first quarter of 2026, which means more than 8 million people are actively job-hunting.

The expanded unemployment rate, which includes those not actively looking for work and discouraged work seekers, now stands at 43.7%, or about 12 million South Africans of working age.

Youth unemployment is of particular concern, with over 4.7 million young people unemployed.

Seven out of ten sectors recorded net job losses in the first quarter, including significant losses in the community and social services industry. The construction, transport, finance, utilities and trade industries also saw job losses.

Net job gains were recorded in the agricultural, mining and manufacturing industries.

DA Leader Geordin Hill-Lewis has lamented these figures, saying that serious economic reform is urgently required.

“South Africa does not lack economic potential. It lacks political urgency.  Investors and businesses are still held back by red tape, unreliable basic services, failing ports and rail, and crime that makes it harder and more expensive to build, trade, transport goods, and employ people.”

He says that while the internal ANC crises affect their performance in national government, like Phala Phala and criminal infiltration, they remain distracted from reform, and South Africans are paying the price in lost wages, closed opportunities, and families left behind.

“The Democratic Alliance believes South Africa’s central national mission must be to get the economy growing and creating jobs. That requires urgent, practical reform. Economic reform has been too slow, too cautious, and too easily displaced by other political priorities.”

Other parties have also chimed in.

ActionSA MP Alan Beesley has called on President Cyril Ramaphosa to fire all the GNU Ministers, who, he says, are responsible for South Africa’s current “job-destroying environment”.

“Two years into the Government of National Unity, South Africans are yet to see a coherent economic reform agenda capable of meaningfully addressing the unemployment crisis. ActionSA will therefore formally write to President Ramaphosa, urging him to take urgent and decisive action against those Ministers entrusted with enabling economic growth, investment and employment, but who continue to preside over economic decline and rising joblessness.”

Build One South Africa (BOSA) Leader Mmusi Maimane says the latest jobs report is a reflection of poor governance and government failure.

“It also highlights the fact that South Africa remains structurally unable to provide the economic incentives necessary for investment. Our economy, in its current form, is structurally flawed in its ability to create jobs and absorb the millions of South Africans who are desperate for work. Only through rigorous oversight, data-driven policy, and leadership that puts South Africans first can we unlock inclusive economic growth and real job creation.”

Meanwhile, the GOOD Party’s Secretary-General, Brett Herron, has called on the State to find the means to implement a basic income grant (BIG), to tackle poverty, pointing to the “hopelessly inadequate” R370 SRD grant.

“By the State’s own reckoning, the extreme poverty line (known as the Food Poverty Line), indicating the amount of money an individual needs to afford the minimum required daily energy, is R855 per person per month. That excludes people’s day-to-day needs for toiletries, cleaning materials, clothing, blankets, heating, bus tickets, etc.”

 

Herron says to meet its Constitutional requirements and fund a Basic Income Grant, the State must “trim fat, waste and corruption.”

“Three years ago, the GOOD Party funded economic research showing that it was within the State’s means to afford a R1000-a-month BIG. What was needed was a zero-based approach to budgeting: Instead of modelling next year’s budget on last year’s, and the year before that – going all the way back to Van Riebeeck – South Africa’s spending should be determined by its real-time priorities. The budget-making process should effectively start each year from scratch.”

 

COSATU’s Parliamentary Co-ordinator Matthew Parks says they will be making formal proposals on a stimulus package to mobilise every possible public and private financial resource to Nedlac and Parliament.

“Unemployment is the single greatest threat to the nation. It requires the same decisive and progressive response as was mobilised and led by President Cyril Ramaphosa during COVID-19. This is a ticking time bomb we dare not ignore.”

Supporters of the National Coloured Congress (NCC) leader, Fadiel Adams, are expected to return to the gates of Parliament on Wednesday morning, as Adams prepares to make his second court appearance.

He’s expected to apply for bail today at the Pinetown Magistrates Court in KwaZulu-Natal

His supporters gathered outside Parliament on Tuesday night, calling for Adams to be freed.

“It is clear they are misusing the law to hurt Fadiel Adams. It is clear he’s the only that is willing to speak up against corruption… Once we win the corruption up there, it will filter down to our very police stations we have a problem with. So, free Fadiel Adams,” one supporter said.

This follows a briefing held by NCC on Sunday, in which they said they believe the recent action against Adams is a smear campaign.

Adams was arrested by the Political Killings Task Team in Cape Town and made his first court appearance in KwaZulu-Natal last week for allegedly interfering with the investigation into the 2017 murder of ANC youth league leader Sindiso Magaqa.

His party criticised the SAPS and Parliament, which claimed Adams unlawfully met with an individual, implicated in the case, who was in police custody.

However, the party’s Sakiena Frenchman argues that Adams acted within his rights as a member of Parliament. She addressed the media on Sunday, days after Adam’s first court appearance.

“Under the Correctional Services Act and the Standing Rules of Parliament, members of the relevant portfolio committees have the right to visit correctional centres and interview inmates as part of their oversight work. This makes the meeting itself legally sanctioned in terms of the law,” said Sakiena.

She added that any failure to seek permission from the Chairperson of Parliament Portfolio Committee on Police, Ian Cameron, would amount to “an HR issue, not a criminal one”.

Frenchman further described Adam’s arrest as politically motivated and aimed at discrediting Adams over corruption allegations he had previously raised.

“The arrest of Honourable Adams is merely a smear campaign, which is intended to cast a shadow and doubt on brazen alleged corruption raised by him. We are greatly concerned that this arrest, its merits, and the events surrounding the actions of the SAPS… is fraught with intentional errors that contravene many national government laws and most importantly, the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa.”

*This article has been updated to reflect the protest action by members of the NCC outside Parliament, and has been republished. The original article was published on 11 May 2026.